Disneyland Paris - 11 sleeps to go! Top tips please.

[holidaydreaming]

Going just after Easter with dh, dd1(5), dd2 (3) and ds(7mo).
We're staying for 4 nights at Hotel New York. We've booked channel tunnel, park tickets, hotel and cafe mickey for lunch one day. Other than that I'll be wondering round aimlessly!
Any top tips. Think we'll bring princess dresses for girls. Should we buy autograph books or anything else to bring with us?
Also am slightly worried that we'll be spending more than the cost of the holiday on crap food!
Any help gratefully accepted!

Buy autograph books when there. Take snacks for kids to have in queues. Use fast pass system. Use magic hours. Red characters in hotel not park, queues shortIin hotel. Manhattan restaurant in new York is actually quite good although expensive. Book restaurants in advance or on arrival or else be prepared to queue a long time with hungry kids. Use baby switch system on rides as your baby will be too small for most of them. You won't be wandering round aimlessly there is so much to do you'll be rushing from one thing to next. Fantasyland is your best land for your age group. He you are in school hols be prepared for very long queues although with fast pass and magic hours that will help.

Have a great time we love it.

we stayed in hotel new york and I thought the food there was okay. We booked the meal tickets so ate our breakfast and evening meal there. Lunch was usually McD's.
My main tip would be to bring drinks - lots of cartons in your suitcase. They are so expensive to buy.
We did the magic hours in the morning, then went back to the hotel when the park was busy and used the pool.

If you feel the need to escape Disney (you never know) go to Val d'Europe shopping centre to eat, shop or go to the Sea life centre. You will also save a fortune on food.
6 sleeps for us!!!

Great -thanks.

Will def bring drinks in suitcase. Are there water fountains around to fill up?
Ok- am preparing for lots of queuing. Any ways of making that more fun?
Pbh- have a fab time!

Take lots of snacks as well as drinks. Also, you can make up cheese/ham rolls, take pastries etc from the breakfast buffet - maybe take some ziplock bags if you think you might do that?

Otherwise, agree, definitely get up and make use of the magic hours

Ooh ziplock bags- excellent idea.

The New York is lovely , cafe Mickey is overpriced and better value at breakfast but probably not a lot you can do about that if you've already paid . Definitely use the extra hours in the mornings and if you and your husband want to do the rides the children can't get on use the parent swop thing . Fast pass is very good as well. My daughter says the chicken nuggets at Caseys Corner are worth going for without anything else ! The flying carpets in the studio is much the same ride as The Dumbos but the queue is usually really short . See the characters in the hotel in the morning , there is usually 2 different ones each day and over 4 days you should get all the main ones without having to queue in the park . Take your camera to breakfast so you can get them then as the photos they take are very expensive and no better than you take your self . Have a great time . If you're driving take snacks ,crisps ,drinks , tea/ coffee and kettle ( you can ask for one but they don't come as standard ) you can buy milk in the hotel shop. The room service at the New York is quite good and I've never found it that expensive .

We never take drinks just water bottles, yes there are fountains to fill up. We find that with a big breakfast and an evening meal we don't want lunch just a snack.

Unfortunately not found any way of making queues more fun. Outside schoolIhols and weekends the queues are fine but at weekend and hols time queues can be 45-70 mins which is why fast pass and magic hours are good! Pirate playground in adventure land good for no queue activity and small world in fantasy land has short queues.

Great -thanks loads. Will bring camera to breakfast. Will they have Disney princesses at the hotel? Girls aren't too excited about mickey, goofy etc but they will be really pleased to see belle etc..
Kettle- this I reckon will be my lifesaver!
Also thx for restaurant recommendation. Girls are also big fans of chicken nuggets!! Oh where have I gone wrong. I imagined they would be listening to Mozart and eating falafel at this age but instead it's " it's a small world" and nuggets!!
Pirate playground will be good chance for a sit down I reckon!

Personally I've never seen the princesses in the hotels , although we did see Cinderellas mice friends once . You can book to have dinner with the princesses , I think its at the Cinderella themed restaurant in Fantasyland to the right as you walk through the castle , or you could last year . I don't know what it's like as I never did it ( mine are older now) . The queues for the princesses can be vast so that may be a good way to go .

No, the princesses are not at the hotel. Mickey and Minnie are though. To avoid queuing at the princess pavilion, just see the princesses on the parade. They all come by waving etc and mine are normally very happy with that. You will be surprised which random characters end up being your dcs favourites!

Wow - I'm impressed you knew they were Cinderella's mouse friends. If the girls ask who random characters are I shall use the immortal phrase, " ask your father' !

Wow - I'm impressed you knew they were Cinderella's mouse friends. If the girls ask who random characters are I shall use the immortal phrase, " ask your father' !

My top tip - take lots if warm clothes (it's cold) and lots of snacks (food inside the park is v v expensive and poor quality)

Oh I know all the old characters , my eldest was born the year Disneyland Paris opened and we've been every year for at least one trip ,its seriously sad but I could probably draw an accurate map of both parks with my eyes closed . We've stayed at most of the hotels ( except Sante fe and cheyenne) but the New York is our favourite although it is a little dated in places.

Apparently people are regretting not seeing the Dreams show every night so my top tip to you would be to make sure you watch it as many times as possible! It's at park closing time so 9.30 on weekdays 10.00 weekends after Easter. We're going soon too - am taking masses of snacks as trying to find something decent/slashed reasonably priced/ in the middle of a queue is nigh on impossible! We take water bottles and fill up at fountains which are located near most of the toilets. We're also making sure we take some warm clothes for those early start and late evenings.

Use your extra magic hours - breakfasts are always nicest as early as possible - aim for 7.30 so you can be in the park for the 8am start - I always feel that the park is at it's most magical then plus as you've got young DCs the rides you'll most want to go on are actually open then (Dumbo, pinnochio) and are ones that get stupid queues later on.

Take snacks from breakfast - I always think of it as simply taking the rest of the kids' breakfast they were too excited to eat! For cheaper meals the Earl of Sandwich just opposite Hotel New York has reportedly great sandwiches/kids' meal deals for around 5 euros a piece - very good value at DL! Baby switch is brill - you just say "baby switch' to the cast member at the end of the queue to find out what to do. Get fast passes - they tend to run out later in the day so remember to collect them up earlier - very useful if you and DH want to go on unsuitable stuff quickly (along with baby switch) and you can use all your park passes to get .

Only a few more days till I'm there so excited! We've been going every 2 years or so since the kids were tiny, oldest DS is finally tall enough for EVERYTHING!

Do check out DLRP Magic! and forums for loads of info.

I realise that recommending you stay up late is not ideal with young DCs but our plan of action has always been early start, back to hotel early afternoon for nap and/or swim then back out for late afternoon/evening meal and more park fun. However, you'll find what works for you and you'll have a wonderful magical time. Just make sure kids are suitably fed and watered at all times to keep the over-excited grouchiness at bay! I must admit I was rather hoping it would be warmer by Easter - we've always been in the summer hols previously so having to make sure we've got loads of warm things (as well as sun lotion in case we actually get the hot snap April often brings) is a bit of a shock.

Wondering around aimlessly is part of the joys - the theming is so detailed and beautiful that it's hard to to tire of it and you're going for plenty of time so there'll be no rush. It's worth factoring a few sit down shows during the day for a rest so work out what you want to see and plan your day around those. Stitch Live is hilarious and our youngest loved Playhouse Disney show when we were there last year.

Do a full circuit on the train that goes round the perimeter of the park - but avoid getting on it at Main Street, you'll queue forever - I think I remember it being quickest to get on at Frontier Land queue-wise.

Make sure you don't miss the dragon in Sleeping Beauty's castle!

We are going at the same time and staying at the same place!

Good tips here although I'm not sure I'll get dh out of bed for an 8am start!!

The Dreams show is amazing

Sooty Ha ha, maybe, or maybe he'll be like mine and raring to go - I'm pretty sure us parents are more excited than the kids! btw I meant Peter Pan, not pinnochio. The Peter Pan ride is lovely.

We took a bottle of squash and just made up drinks to take out for the day. For some reason they only sell water or fizzy drinks (at eye watering prices). Also took a Tupperware tub to put a few rolls and pastries in from breakfast!

We also had a stroller for both ds's (age 5 and 2 at the time) it was a godsend for ds1 as the days were long and lots of walking, in fact he even had a nap in it one day!

Hi ladies, hope you don't mind me joining in but I'm after some urgent advice. My DH has just come in from work & told me he has booked euro Disney for us 2 plus our 2 yo DD to go on Friday via euro tunnel, stay in a hotel & have all day Sat at the park!
We've had a rough time recently as a family with my DH's health & unfortunately he isn't quite out of the woods yet but basically said we could all do with a now family trip together.

So crikey! What do I need to do/ think of? We are staying in a hotel called magic circle? Haven't even looked it up yet, just thought I'd come for some MN wisdom first Know its likely to be busier with school hols but I guess there are only so many rides DD can go on given her age.

Never been to Euro Disney before & went to Disney Florida when I was about 14- many moons ago.

Have a great time , take lots of warm clothes, gloves, hats, fantasyland best land for a two year old.